Game alt-tabbing or flashing desktop [merged]

Comments

@X T D.6458 said:
To the people who have rolled back or are intentionally holding back on installing the new windows update, its usually a bad idea to do so. These updates often contain security features and patches, and you can leave your computer vulnerable for the sake of convenience. Better to put up with this bug for now rather than putting your computer and personal safety at risk.

Wanted to add my comment as well, because my experience is a bit different. I have been having flickering to desktop for a moment during loading screens since I started playing last year. But it was a very minor issue, didn't bother me at all, so I didn't do anything about it assuming that it was normal. But since the last Windows upgrade this issue worsened considerably. Now that flickering happens for the whole duration of the loading screen, it looks like the game just crashed, also it made my loading screens way longer than they were. I'll try disabling the focus attention feature. But my main point is that this is not new for me and has been happening (although minor as it was) for more than half a year.

So after telling me you didn't get the info you requested twice you just close my ticket and ask me to fill out the survey. Did nothing at all to try resolving my ticket. Telling me to just play Windowed and maybe it's Discord is not fixing my issue nor was it an attempt to work on it. Put in a ticket they said, yet they won't even attempt to resolve the issue.

Turning off the focus assist feature in win10 seems to have fixed this issue for me, and I was able to go back to fullscreen from windowed fullscreen. Started getting this same thing happening (the minimizing) once the new win10 update hit me yesterday. Game didn't minimize when I switched to windowed fullscreen mode, but did in fullscreen mode.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

@Rayti.6531 said:This suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

Thanks for posting this here, Rayti! I missed that Reddit post, so I'll see if this works for the folks I'm working with in support tickets.

Lead GM Magister - The one that deals with tech support questions. (✿╹◡╹)

@Rayti.6531 said:This suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

I'd previously disabled the focus assist when playing a game option and although it did make the showing of the desktop quicker, it didn't fully resolve the issue. But now when I added that second piece of checking that box to disable full screen optimizations, it did indeed appear to resolve the issue. Now when changing maps it quickly flashes a black screen, but doesn't flash to the desktop any more. Thank you for passing along that tip!

@Rayti.6531 said:This suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

Thanks for posting this here, Rayti! I missed that Reddit post, so I'll see if this works for the folks I'm working with in support tickets.

@Rayti.6531 said:This suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

I tried this just now, checking disable fullscreen optimization does nothing to help. The notifications option did not help either as every time I restarted the application the focus assist settings would go from off, back to priority only. This did however lead to a "fix".

I had originally disabled focus assist in the windows settings, but had left other tabs turned on within the settings (see screenshot/attachment). After also disabling the "During these times", "When I'm duplicating my display", and "When I'm playing a game" options, I no longer dropout to desktop for more than a quarter of a second at best. Not entirely fixed but I went from waiting 5-10 seconds at the desktop and flashing in and out, to a quick .25 sec flash back into the loading screen and or the map already.

Hey there. I'm not exactly sure what took place in the one extended conversation in this thread, but I want to share some insights on attachments. People occasionally try to send me files, images, reports, etc., through our e-mail or ticketing system, and it's important for you to know that our system is set up to not accept or allow attachments to come through in the first communication within a ticket.

What you can do is this:

Submit a report and tell the agent that you have a report, file, or something else that you are able to forward.

The agent will respond to let you know that they want to receive the attachment.

You update your ticket and include the attachment.

The agent then should receive the attachment just fine. If within a few days you don't receive a response that indicates that they have received the attachment, you are welcome to update the existing ticket to inquire whether it was received. This confirms we're fully communicating with one another and ensures that CS knows that you have a file (or sent a file) and lets them determine whether to ask for it to be sent again. (And hey, if this is a bit of a bother, we apologize, but it really is the most secure system we have at present.)

Thanks for working with us to use best security practices and to get you the help that you need!

@Orion Templar.4589 said:
I'd previously disabled the focus assist when playing a game option and although it did make the showing of the desktop quicker, it didn't fully resolve the issue. But now when I added that second piece of checking that box to disable full screen optimizations, it did indeed appear to resolve the issue. Now when changing maps it quickly flashes a black screen, but doesn't flash to the desktop any more. Thank you for passing along that tip!

I get those short black flashes as well, but I think I‘ve had those prior to the 1803 update as well (at least with one of the past few GW2 client versions). So I guess that‘s as close to „normal“ and as good as it gets for now...

@Rayti.6531 said:This suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

Man I had high hopes this would fix it but the option was already checked so no good. Disabling the other new option recommended early in the thread shortened the flash to a second or 2 but this started today as soon as the windows 10 update completed.

I also have had the black flashes ever since building the new pc 6 months ago during gw2 loads. I guess those didnt bother me as much as this did but I hope they figure this out soon.

@Rayti.6531 said:This suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

Thanks for posting this here, Rayti! I missed that Reddit post, so I'll see if this works for the folks I'm working with in support tickets.

Little update on my end: the problem seems to have reduced and almost completely disappeared. I haven't done anything different, but I don't recall having this problem while playing fractals with my guild for the past few hours. The problem was still there before midnight (GMT+8) but past midnight it seems to have cleared up. I'm not sure if this was because something had been fixed or not

I kinda fixed the problem. SO for windows 10, go to the "New notification icon on the bottom right corner of the desktop. Close out the cortana Kitten. MAke sure that it doesn't pop up again. IT helped me. It still alt tab back to the desktop, but for 1 millisec. Unlike before, it alt tab and i had to wait like 10 sec to get back on the game.

Ok So I know that people have said Focus Assist was the problem. Many of us already had it turned off so how could that be the problem right? Well although mine was already off , and I'd even toggled it to see if it would fix it. It didn't, but then I left it off as always but this time I unticked the "WHEN I"M PLAYING A GAME' option, it seems to have fixed the issue for me. Loads right up now, and I was getting flashes every 3-4 mins, those flashings may have also been fixed. Didn't get a flash while I tested for 10 mins. Will be back in about 30mins to confirm the fix.

UPDATE: Well although it loads right in, and I don't flash anymore during game play. It now will cause the screen to get stuck if I alt tab. I then have to end GW2 per task manager. guess I'll log back in to WoW, or Swtor then. Have a good night everyone.

Disabling fullscreen optimizations seems to have gotten me very close to a fix as well. I now usually get only the quick switch to a black screen when changing maps, though I will still very occasionally get a split second flash to the desktop. Still a great improvement over the situation as it stood just after the win 10 update . . .

My next natural question is what are fullscreen optimizations and do I want them disabled?

I have the same issue with Windows 10, it updated Thursday night and since then, when i run GW, or change maps in GW; it flashes back to desktop. Has frozen twice from alt-tabbing. And when I logged into GW2 i noticed that my ping, for a moment would be a crazy number like 1.5k or 3k.

I turned off the notifications but the 'flashing back to desktop' still happens, just to a lesser degree. I notice in the top left hand corner it shows a "GW2" title bar as if from a window.

@Gop.8713 said:
My next natural question is what are fullscreen optimizations and do I want them disabled?

Full screen optimization is supposed to improve performance while gaming. It works for some games, but for others it actually makes matters worse, decreases your FPS or can lead to other strange bugs (see the current problems with GW2).

Microsoft claims that they work on improvements of this feature continuously, so I guess one of the recent improvements went sideways with some setups/combinations of software in use (these things are difficult to track down).

It is enabled by default, so I’d suggest to keep it that way system-wide and just try to disable it for games you're experiencing problems with.

Hi all,
just experienced the same problem after Windows 10 April Update here in Germany some days ago. Turning off this focus assist settings in windows solved the problem in parts because I only dropped back to desktop for only 1 second (before it was around 5-6 seconds). Now a guildie gave me this tip: In the GW2 ingame graphics settings I changed my resolution to "Windowed Fullscreen". Now the problem has entirely disappeared.

@Rayti.6531 said:This suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

That made it worse for me. With the fullscreen optimisation disabled, I get multiple black flashes when I wait for the game to load after logging in, AND when I change maps or load a character, I get bounced to the desktop, then there's a flash of black screen, then the desktop, then the character loads into the new map.

I wouldn't automatically blame Windows 10 / April for this. It could easily be GW2 that's doing something wrong that the previous builds of Windows tolerated better than April does. (There was a similar thing on iPhones - Apple released an update to iOS that made it less tolerant of a particular bug in apps, so those apps started crashing out and/or freezing. You'd think that was Apple's fault entirely, but the apps were buggy, and were doing something that the developer guides said not to do.)

I wouldn't automatically blame Windows 10 / April for this. It could easily be GW2 that's doing something wrong that the previous builds of Windows tolerated better than April does. (There was a similar thing on iPhones - Apple released an update to iOS that made it less tolerant of a particular bug in apps, so those apps started crashing out and/or freezing. You'd think that was Apple's fault entirely, but the apps were buggy, and were doing something that the developer guides said not to do.)

I would.... Lets not forget that GW2 and GW1 have both been out for years as well as Windows 10 (Windows 10 first debuted in 2015), I never had problems with either GW's on Windows 7 and I didnt have any problems on Windows 10 till i updated to 1803 Creators Update. One would assume that Both NCsoft of Microsoft would of had more than enough time to bug fix and optimise their code no??

Not to mention that Microsoft has a history of releasing updates for windows 10 that broke things. Hence why some tech folk call windows 10 users ' Glorified beta testers'.

One would assume that it was the Windows update that borked everything no??? But go ahead pull the wool over your eyes and call GuildWars badly coded. I mean lets just make blind assumptions because we can right?

I wouldn't automatically blame Windows 10 / April for this. It could easily be GW2 that's doing something wrong that the previous builds of Windows tolerated better than April does. (There was a similar thing on iPhones - Apple released an update to iOS that made it less tolerant of a particular bug in apps, so those apps started crashing out and/or freezing. You'd think that was Apple's fault entirely, but the apps were buggy, and were doing something that the developer guides said not to do.)

I would.... Lets not forget that GW2 and GW1 have both been out for years as well as Windows 10 (Windows 10 first debuted in 2015), I never had problems with either GW's on Windows 7 and I didnt have any problems on Windows 10 till i updated to 1803 Creators Update. One would assume that Both NCsoft of Microsoft would of had more than enough time to bug fix and optimise their code no??

Not to mention that Microsoft has a history of releasing updates for windows 10 that broke things. Hence why some tech folk call windows 10 users ' Glorified beta testers'.

One would assume that it was the Windows update that borked everything no??? But go ahead pull the wool over your eyes and call GuildWars badly coded. I mean lets just make blind assumptions because we can right?

Not automatically. Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't. And if you say "I blame windows 10 entirely" like that, aren't you just making a blind assumption?

The key point is that without access to the code behind GW2, we don't know enough to just come out and say that it is Microsoft's fault. My point about the iOS update was that Apple released a new update, and a list of apps were borked as a result. I know, because I used one of them. Shortly after, the app developer released a patch. Given that, who was at fault? Apple for enforcing their rules, or the app developers for breaking them?

Now look at the Windows 10 versus GW1/GW2 situation: other games I've looked at don't do this. What's more likely? Two games do something dubious that's no longer supported fully by Windows, or an actual bug in Windows that only affects those two games?

Same issue here, started immediately after applying Windows update 1803 which was the only change between not having the issue and having the issue.

Wonder if it's related to those new game related features I noticed, like it "hiding" notifications while in-game etc. That game bar was already annoying but seems they try to get their hooks even more in software you have installed.

I wouldn't automatically blame Windows 10 / April for this. It could easily be GW2 that's doing something wrong that the previous builds of Windows tolerated better than April does. (There was a similar thing on iPhones - Apple released an update to iOS that made it less tolerant of a particular bug in apps, so those apps started crashing out and/or freezing. You'd think that was Apple's fault entirely, but the apps were buggy, and were doing something that the developer guides said not to do.)

I would.... Lets not forget that GW2 and GW1 have both been out for years as well as Windows 10 (Windows 10 first debuted in 2015), I never had problems with either GW's on Windows 7 and I didnt have any problems on Windows 10 till i updated to 1803 Creators Update. One would assume that Both NCsoft of Microsoft would of had more than enough time to bug fix and optimise their code no??

Not to mention that Microsoft has a history of releasing updates for windows 10 that broke things. Hence why some tech folk call windows 10 users ' Glorified beta testers'.

One would assume that it was the Windows update that borked everything no??? But go ahead pull the wool over your eyes and call GuildWars badly coded. I mean lets just make blind assumptions because we can right?

Not automatically. Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't. And if you say "I blame windows 10 entirely" like that, aren't you just making a blind assumption?

The key point is that without access to the code behind GW2, we don't know enough to just come out and say that it is Microsoft's fault. My point about the iOS update was that Apple released a new update, and a list of apps were borked as a result. I know, because I used one of them. Shortly after, the app developer released a patch. Given that, who was at fault? Apple for enforcing their rules, or the app developers for breaking them?

Now look at the Windows 10 versus GW1/GW2 situation: other games I've looked at don't do this. What's more likely? Two games do something dubious that's no longer supported fully by Windows, or an actual bug in Windows that only affects those two games?

So....

Youre comparing some app coded in Java or C++ for a mobile OS thats made by mostly by anons -- the 'one-man-in his-bedroom' on a weekend type programmers who make an app which probably comes to a few kilobytes in code to Guildwars who had probably a team 10-20 if not more skilled and qualified programmers (and god knows how many animators) writing code for as a day job for a game that weighs way into the gigabytes, has multiple expansions on both games and probably made on a budget enough to buy a mansion in every major country in the world...

With that kind of statement, Im not going to waste my time debating further with you as its clear that you live in a different world.

All you need to know is the Windows update messed up guild wars as well as other non gaming apps. Google is rife with reports of Creators Update 1803 issues.

but cool... if you think its the guildwars team that has coded the game badly, then more power to you.

Created a ticket last night, got a quick response with the log app. Hopefully as many people as possible are sending their logs into support to get this figured out. Clearly there are people running the latest windows on both nvidia and ati cards that arent getting this so all the help the people that are getting the bug can give should help them fix this for us that much quicker. It only takes like 5 minutes to run the game adviser program they send you.

@Trae.2384 said:
Created a ticket last night, got a quick response with the log app. Hopefully as many people as possible are sending their logs into support to get this figured out. Clearly there are people running the latest windows on both nvidia and ati cards that arent getting this so all the help the people that are getting the bug can give should help them fix this for us that much quicker. It only takes like 5 minutes to run the game adviser program they send you.

I created a ticket 2days ago -- they accessed it after 8hrs but didnt say a single word and its not been touched for the last 18hrs...

I mean, I know they are busy but a "hi, we're looking into it" would of been nice to show that they have seen my ticket. My experience of NCsoft CS has been rather poor at best throughout the years tbh.

The only positive I take away from the whole experience is that I maybe need to deal with them once in a blue moon.

@Trae.2384 said:
Created a ticket last night, got a quick response with the log app. Hopefully as many people as possible are sending their logs into support to get this figured out. Clearly there are people running the latest windows on both nvidia and ati cards that arent getting this so all the help the people that are getting the bug can give should help them fix this for us that much quicker. It only takes like 5 minutes to run the game adviser program they send you.

I created a ticket 2days ago -- they accessed it after 8hrs but didnt say a single word and its not been touched for the last 18hrs...

I mean, I know they are busy but a "hi, we're looking into it" would of been nice to show that they have seen my ticket. My experience of NCsoft CS has been rather poor at best throughout the years tbh.

The only positive I take away from the whole experience is that I maybe need to deal with them once in a blue moon.

As always with things like Customer Services. YMMV

You will be happy to know that you are not dealing with NCSoft CS, but with the ArenaNet CS Team. It's been many years since NCSoft had anything to do with CS.

@Trae.2384 said:
Created a ticket last night, got a quick response with the log app. Hopefully as many people as possible are sending their logs into support to get this figured out. Clearly there are people running the latest windows on both nvidia and ati cards that arent getting this so all the help the people that are getting the bug can give should help them fix this for us that much quicker. It only takes like 5 minutes to run the game adviser program they send you.

I created a ticket 2days ago -- they accessed it after 8hrs but didnt say a single word and its not been touched for the last 18hrs...

I mean, I know they are busy but a "hi, we're looking into it" would of been nice to show that they have seen my ticket. My experience of NCsoft CS has been rather poor at best throughout the years tbh.

The only positive I take away from the whole experience is that I maybe need to deal with them once in a blue moon.

As always with things like Customer Services. YMMV

hmm im surprised they didnt at least give you the same copy/paste looking response with the app link in it. They emphasized how important it was to get as many report files as possible in this thread here so thats odd.

My windows 10 recently did some updates and now every time I have a loading screen, my game minimizes and shows my desktop. It automatically goes back to the game by itself once it loads though. Its still kinda annoying..

After last night win10 update, I can't ALT-TAB quickly anymore into GW2. When I wish to ALT-TAB into GW2 from another application (say browser), it shows me a blank screen with small rectangle in left upper corner with "GuildWars2 title". Then it takes a 3-5 seconds delay before GW2 graphics shows. I run in full screen highest available resolution mode.

Well done Microsoft... What an annoyance.

Rytlock Brimstone: So we find the archon, take him out, then use Kas's "imposter" trick to take his place, right?Lady Kasmeer Meade: It's not a trick. Mesmers don't do "tricks"—we utilize illusion.Rytlock Brimstone: Yeah, yeah. You guys are worse than elementalists.

@slayerking.3581 said:
Found the problem, It's the new focus assist kitten they have put into the new winblows update. If you go to settings>system>focus assist and turn it all off, it does it much quicker now instead of sitting there for 10 seconds or so on the desktop.

This fixed it for me.

Rytlock Brimstone: So we find the archon, take him out, then use Kas's "imposter" trick to take his place, right?Lady Kasmeer Meade: It's not a trick. Mesmers don't do "tricks"—we utilize illusion.Rytlock Brimstone: Yeah, yeah. You guys are worse than elementalists.

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:
but cool... if you think its the guildwars team that has coded the game badly, then more power to you.

That's not what I said. I said that you can't just blame it automatically, as a matter of course, without further knowledge, on the Windows update. It might be, but it might not be. Heck, it might even be caused by this thing in Windows 1803 (a bug) interacting with that thing in GW1 and GW2 (which is also a bug).

Without being able to look at the code in either one(1), I couldn't begin to speculate whose bug or bugs it is, whereas you jumped straight to "it's Microsoft's fault'.

(1) I work as a programmer, and the things I've seen over the years have lead me to put almost zero trust in a snap analysis of a problem. "I updated Windows and these two games from the same company do something odd, but no other games do that thing, THEREFORE it is 100% the fault of the update" is a snap analysis.

For me, the only change was win10 update. After that I experienced issues described above. So, for me it is clear - win10 caused it. Also, it was fixed after changing the setting of the new feature installed with the win10 update.

Rytlock Brimstone: So we find the archon, take him out, then use Kas's "imposter" trick to take his place, right?Lady Kasmeer Meade: It's not a trick. Mesmers don't do "tricks"—we utilize illusion.Rytlock Brimstone: Yeah, yeah. You guys are worse than elementalists.

I've just started having this issue today as well after a windows 10 update.
Is anyone able to post a list of the current suggested fixes? (a summary/dot points with links would be wonderful)
There is just way too many posts to sort through ^_^
The issue seems to happen more to me on first game load, less so between loading different areas.

@Rayti.6531 said:This suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

Fullscreen optimization made things worse for me. I went from a long wait at the desktop, to flickering between desktop and game with some alternating black and white flashes in between. Restoring the optimization, but leaving the DISable suggestion you had, does slightly reduce the flashing to desktop issue.

Here is what helped for my wife's computer and mine. Running Win 10 with the recent update:

Go to Focus Assist Settings

Under Focus Assist select Priority Only

Under When I'm Playing a Game select OFF

The game will still go to the desktop when changing zones, but it comes back very quickly, as opposed to previously when it would go to the desktop and stay there for a while. It's more usable and less intrusive now. Good luck!

@Rayti.6531 said:This suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.

In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update: DISable the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)

Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

I tried this fix. Definitely didn't work for me. Disabling fullscreen optimization caused GW2 to consistantly crash while loading the launcher.

Was happening to me alot too, saw someone had posted to turn off the "focus feature" in the win 10 April update, that helped some but still get the minimized game on occasion from a load screen. Windows is also revamping how the alt tab works.... that should screw it up even more. The focus feature is under settings, system. Turn it all off. The only downside is you will get some windows notifications on top of the game, don't click them and it won't take you out of the game to windows. I hope this helps.

I went into my update manager. Found the particular updates ( yes there is more than on that day lol, kitten ) And used the Repair option, on them all. Helped a bit with the dropped to desktop issue. Still not like it was before though. Hope this helps.

Even while the CS Team is super busy, we would like to ask you to submit a ticket to them, so that they can gather more information and help you out, too! You should use "technical support" as the reason or the "bucket" for your ticket, to best assign it.

They may well ask you to send in a report or a log, and that would be very helpful because it helps identify common issues and parse those that are distinctive to separate individuals and then provide assistance in either area, as they are able to.